Oh, it feels good to be back. I hope you all had a great weekend. We (well, I should say my boys) worked on the yard this weekend trying to get the leaves taken care of before the (ahem) white stuff starts to fly. We spent most of our summer getting the yard looking good so we’re kind of on a mission to keep it that way. There’s still a ways to go before we’re really ready for winter but it’s getting there.

Anywhoo…I spent a little time in my stamp room this weekend working on some gift ideas for the ladies who take my class every month at work. Praise the Lord for Pinterest! I found some fantastic ideas there which gave me the launching pad I needed to put something together. What I have for you today is the fruit of my labor. A really quick and easy gift idea that I bet you could put together without any trouble at all. My goal was to use what I have and believe me, I have a lot! So, in the interests of cleaning up a bit of the stash that takes an entire room to contain, here’s what I came up with.

Quick and Easy Card Set – Just in time for holiday gifting!

I know that I am not alone in the whole overflowing stash thing and I bet more than one of you have a stack of those designer paper packs that you’ve been “saving” for something. Well, pull ’em out and let’s do something with them! This project is a perfect way to showcase a bunch of different patterns and it’s easy to do.

I started with a couple of sheets of light aqua cs (Basis Cover) for my cards which incidentally is really close in color to Cool Caribbean but also similar to Coastal Cabana. Close enough for this project anyway. I cut the sheets in half and folded them for my 4 cards, then grabbed 3 or 4 different prints from the DSP stack and just started layering different pieces together on the card fronts. Note that no two are alike. This is by design. I had virtually no pieces left over when I was done so for the paper-frugal sort, this was a win! Next, I pulled out my Morning Meadow stamp set and stamped 4 pansies in Real Red and 4 Happy Birthday sentiments in Baked Brown Sugar. The pansies were punched out and the sentiments hand trimmed into the little word banners. I also punched 4 Baked Brown Sugar 1-3/4 inch circles and 4 light aqua 1-1/2 inch circles to go along with the flowers and the words. I folder embossed the aqua circles using a Lifestyle Crafts folder called Chain II. The simple design coordinated quite well with the DSP. Finally, I arranged the circles – layered together – with the flowers and word banners on each card and adhered them with foam dimensionals. Easy Peasy!

Lastly, I needed a box to put my cards in, so I used the envelope punch board to create one then decorated it to match the cards and used a little velcro to hold it closed once the cards and envelopes are tucked inside.

A couple quick tips on the box.

Since you want the box to hold the 4 cards and envelopes, you need to use a slightly larger envelope size than you would if you were just making an envelope for one card. For mine, I used the dimensions and punching instructions for the 4-1/2 x 6 envelope which begins with an 8-1/2 inch square piece of paper. I used Baked Brown Sugar cs.

Score just as you would if you were making the 4-1/2 x 6 inch envelope but then shift each score line over to the right 3/8 of an inch and score again toward the flap. Do this on all 4 flaps. Your flaps will then fold up and over the cards you are inserting inside.

That’s it! Have a great week and as a final note…

If you haven’t already entered to win my 2016 Card of the Month club contest, by all means throw your hat in the ring! There’s plenty of room for entries and remember, you get extra points for sharing on Facebook and Twitter! CLICK HERE to hop back to the entry that explains the rules for this year. Share the love people!

I: Baked Brown Sugar, Real Red

I’m back with info on the 2016 Card of the Month club and how you can win one of 4 spots in my list of monthly card recipients. I have some really pretty cards lined up for the new year that I think you’ll all like. I am also posting this a little earlier than I usually do in hopes of getting a few more entries and also getting the January cards in the mail a little sooner.

NOTE I added a couple new twists to the entry process, so read through the entry instructions carefully!
As I said, for 2016 I will offer FOUR chances to receive a card a month from yours truly! If you’re chosen as one of the winners, you get a different card every month that you can use to give to someone else! I try to send the cards out within the first couple of weeks of each month, but please don’t hold me to a firm date. Life gets in the way sometimes… : )

For 2016, this is what you have to do to enter:

Leave a comment on this post . Yes, this is an unabashed appeal for blog love but you could win so it’s not all bad right? Do this on or BEFORE DECEMBER 11th. Remember to include the sequential number for your comment so I know who you are. (For example, if the person before you is the first to leave a comment, your comment would be #2)

NEW THIS YEAR: You get extra entries if you SHARE and/or TWEET this blog post. Simply use the icons at the bottom of the post to share or tweet. If you do both, that’s two extra entries!

Check back on December 13th. I’ll use Random.org on December 12th to choose FOUR winners and post them here. This is why you’ll need to check back to see if you’ve won. Winners will need to provide me with their postal mailing address so that I know where to send the cards. If I don’t hear back from the winners by December 17th, I will choose again, so make sure you check back! : ) This is a new twist this year, because I want to get the January cards out as soon as possible.

There’s really only one major proviso on this offer and that is in regards to whether the winner(s) are US residents or not. I have always left this open to anyone who is good enough to follow my blog. While I want to continue to leave it open for anyone and everyone, I will adjust my shipping plans for anyone living outside of the US. In that instance, I will ship ALL 12 cards in a single package in mid-January.

Well? What are you waiting for?!

Send me a little blogger love, tweet, share, spread the word, and maybe you’ll be one of the four lucky 2016 Card of the Month Club winners! Also, even if you pass on the extra entry opportunity for sharing and retweeting (but really, why would you?)please share this with your friends and family. After all, who doesn’t like getting happy mail?

Well, my little mini-vacation from blogging was supposed to last a couple of weeks – just long enough to re-infuse the creative juices with fresh inspiration- but before I knew it, our family trip to Ireland turned into a summer of yard work, some painful back issues for me and our oldest son’s wedding. Summer slipped right by and I’ve had little time to stamp other than getting things together for my monthly class at work and a card class or two here and there – just to keep my hand in the game. My back issues have been the biggest hurdle to stamping of late because I can’t sit for more than a few minutes at a time. If you’re an avid stamper, you know how limiting this can be to the creative flow or, for that matter, getting anything done! I am happy to say though that I’ve got a few ideas swirling around in my head and the trip to Ireland was wonderful for inspiring me. How could I not be inspired by fresh, rolling green hills, little pockets of splendor around nearly every corner, and charming little villages full of friendly people.

So, while I don’t have any cards to share with you yet, I thought I would pop in with a few photos of our trip and the wedding. Just to tide you over for a day or two while I work on putting some cards together. Stay tuned too for news on the 2016 Card of the Month Club. I’ll be offering up 4 opportunities again this year to receive a card a month from your’s truly to use however you wish. Watch for a post in the next few days with details on how you can enter to win.

I just thought I would drop in a quick post to let you know that I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off both to regroup the creative energy and also to dive into a much-anticipated family vacation. Actually, I’m pretty sure the vacation will inspire the creativity quite handily!

If nothing else, I promise to come back with lots of incredible photos.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Our weather took a pleasant turn into some much warmer, and thankfully less windy, territory and my productivity seemed to get a boost along with it. I spent Saturday morning pulling things together for my Send A Smile Card Charity event that took place on Sunday and then wrapped up a stunningly beautiful day with some time on my sunny deck. The card event went well and we had a lovely group of ladies participating again this year. A HUGE Thank You to all of the card makers who joined us and helped to make the event a success!

So, welcome back for a new Monday Medley. This week I’m featuring a long-loved set that just never goes out of style. Lovely as a Tree is definitely one of those sets that I will likely never part with.

My first card today is a gatefold. I started with a half sheet (4.25×11) of Always Artichoke scored at 2.75 inches from each end. The two flaps were then covered with a panel of First Edition Specialty DSP. The stamped tree panel is a piece of River Rock stamped with Always Artichoke and tied with a piece of Tim Holtz narrow burlap ribbon and then mounted on a slightly larger piece of Chocolate Chip. The sentiment was stamped on River Rock as well, punched with a 1-1/4 inch circle punch and layered on a Chocolate Chip piece that I punched using the Bracket Label. This piece was adhered to the card with a foam dimensional to pop it up a little. Finally, the left half of the stamped panel was adhered to the left flap of the card.

My second card is a standard book fold. I started with a card base of Baja Breeze then added a panel of Soft Suede. The hardwood background was stamped on ivory with Soft Suede and adhered to the Soft Suede layer. The tree is stamped on ivory in Soft Suede and layered in the same way. I also stamped the tiny little leaf, punched it out and created a matching brad using my build-a-brad kit. A little scrap of Baja Breeze got the embossing folder treatment to add a little texture and the brad was secured to that before adhering to the card. The tree piece was added next and I wrapped things up with the sentiment which was stamped, punched and layered on a piece of punched Baja Breeze. For that I used the word window punch and the Modern Label punch respectively. A couple of foam dimensionals pop the sentiment up off the card a bit.

My last card today boast a little more color. My card base is Not Quite Navy folded sandwich-board style. The trees were stamped on ivory in Memento Tuxedo Black and I used sponges and ink to fill in the grass and sky. The sun was a circle that I punched from a Post-it™ to mask off part of the trees and I just sponged over the top with Pacific Point and Lucky Limeade. After I removed the mask I used So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie to fill in the sun. This piece was layered on Tangerine Tango cs and mounted directly to the card. A trio of tangerine colored candy dots finish it off.